As tax time approaches, let's look at some of the data that has been compiled about the most intrusive, abusive and outright wasteful agency in the U.S. Government: the Internal Revenue Service.
This opening paragraph from the National Retail Sales Tax Alliance webpage of Tax Facts summarizes it very nicely:
| The IRS is not only the most feared of government agencies, it also is one of the biggest and most expensive. The agency has more employees than the Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Drug Enforcement Agency combined, and its budget makes it a bigger consumer of tax dollars than the Departments of Commerce, State, or the Interior. |
But, let's look at some of the numbers, shall we?
| New Evidence 12,000 = The number of additional IRS employees needed to answer phone inquiries from confused taxpayers during tax filing season. Because taxpayers will have nothing to file under a national retail sales tax, additional personnel will not be needed. $1,000 = The hourly collection quota placed on IRS agents auditing individual taxpayers in the San Francisco office. Although collection quotas violate the law, the current system is so complex that the IRS assumes mistakes will be found on every return. There will be no errors with a national retail sales tax because there will be no returns to examine. 62,000,000 = The number of lines of computer code required by the IRS to manage the current tax code. A national retail sales tax will ease the IRS's ongoing computer problems dramatically. 1,420 = The number of appraisals of works of art that an IRS panel performed in order to tax the assets of dead people. Because double taxation under a national retail sales tax does not exist, the absurdity of having the IRS value art would disappear with the death (estate) tax. 3,200 = The number of threats and assaults IRS agents experienced over a five-year period. A fair and simple tax system will reduce taxpayers' frustrations dramatically. What We Already Knew 136,000 = The number of employees at the IRS and elsewhere in the government who are responsible for administering the tax laws. Because the number needed is dictated by the complexity of the tax code, fewer personnel will be needed under a national retail sales tax, and the elimination of the IRS will save taxpayers a significant amount of money. $13,700,000,000 = The amount of tax money spent by the IRS and other government agencies to enforce and oversee the tax code. Both taxpayers and the economy will benefit from the spending reductions made possible by a national retail sales tax. 17,000 = The number of pages of IRS laws and regulations, not including tax court decisions and IRS letter rulings. This page count would be reduced significantly by a national retail sales tax. 5,557,000 = The number of words in the income tax laws and regulations. With a national retail sales tax, there will be no need for a tax code that is nearly seven times longer than the Bible. |
The NRSTA website has many more data references like the ones above. But what can we do about it? The answer is simple: Abolish the IRS. If we could replace the Income Tax system with a National Sales Tax System, here are the numbers we can look forward to:
| 0 = The number of taxpayers under a national retail sales tax who will have to calculate depreciation schedules. 0 = The number of taxpayers under a national retail sales tax who will have to keep track of itemized deductions. 0 = The number of taxpayers under a national retail sales tax who will need to reveal their assets to the government. 0 = The number of taxpayers under a national retail sales tax who will lose their farms or businesses because of the death (estate) tax. 0 = The number of taxpayers under a national retail sales tax who will have to pay a double tax on their capital gains. 0 = The number of taxpayers under a national retail sales tax who will have to compute a phase-out of their personal exemption because their incomes are too high. 0 = The number of taxpayers under a national retail sales tax who will be subject to the alternative minimum tax--those forced to calculate their tax bill two different ways and then to pay the government the greater of the two amounts. 0 = The number of taxpayers under a national retail sales tax who will have to pay taxes on overseas income that already was taxed by the government of the country in which the income was earned. 0 = The number of taxpayers under a national retail sales tax who will have to pay taxes on dividend income that already was taxed at the business level. 0 = The number of taxpayers under a national retail sales tax who will be taxed on interest income that already was taxed at the financial institution level. |
You can access the complete article on-line here:
Interesting Tax Facts
NTRSA
Virginia Chapter
Petition For The FairTax
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